TOWNSVILLE City Councils reputation is taking a battering after a spate of governance failures.

Eight out of 11 of the city’s elected local government representatives are either being investigated or assessed for potential misconduct.

All seven Townsville First councillors have been ordered to front a regional conduct review panel hearing to explain why they didn’t declare a conflict of interest when voting on a matter involving several businesses that donated to their campaign, during a Governance and Finance Committee meeting in April.

The Bulletin has today revealed the Townsville First councillors also failed to declare a conflict of interest when they awarded a contract worth almost $1.2 million in April, 2013, to an excavation company that donated $2000 to their campaign.

Cr Sue Blom and Cr Trevor Roberts, who both ran as part of Townsville First at the last election, have also been involved in controversial matters uncovered by the Bulletin, which are not currently currently under investigation.

The council’s planning department had rezoned Cr Blom’s family property to strictly residential as part of the draft City Plan, but after her husband made a formal submission the decision was overturned to allow the property to retain some commercial zoning.

Despite having an active submission before the council’s planning department, Cr Blom did not declare any potential conflicts of interest, although she received advice stating it was unnecessary from the Local Government Association of Queensland’s ethics adviser and former Liberal treasurer Joan Sheldon.

Cr Roberts failed to update his statement of interests to include payments made for commentating at Townsville Crocodiles home games, which he has been doing since October, 2012.

The Crime and Corruption Commission is assessing wh­ether to pursue action against Mayor Jenny Hill for remaining in the council chamber to vote on a matter involving a relative’s business interests, despite declaring a conflict of interest at the same committee meeting.

Cr Les Walker, Cr Colleen Doyle and Cr Pat Ernst are the only elected representatives not currently under the microscope.

The outcomes of the Crime and Corruption Commission assessment and the regional conduct review panel hearing may not be known for some weeks or even months, but the damage to the council’s image is already mounting.

A local business figure, who wished to remain anonymous, said the disclosures issue was an unnecessary distraction for the council.

“Certainly it’s a distraction and it’s not needed right now,” he said.

“Reading from afar, they appear to be superficial or bureaucratic catch-outs.

“But it’s still not something that helps the perception of transparency.”

The distraction over disclosures comes as Townsville is grappling with an unemployment rate of 10.5 per cent, the highest in Queensland.

Business and consumer confidence has been stuck in the doldrums for several months and the council should be aggressively pursuing job-creating projects with the private sector.

Instead, councillors are dealing with housekeeping and paperwork mistakes.

Cr Ernst, who is the only independent on Walker St, said the failure of some councillors to adequately disclose conflicts of interest could have broader impacts for the city.

“It doesn’t instil confidence in the business community or the community at large,” Cr Ernst said.

“The timing couldn’t be any worse, considering the challenges that the city is already facing.”

Cr Ernst said voters may not forgive councillors caught up in the disclosures debacle after such a highly politicised council term.

“I suspect that if a credible alternative team presented itself at the next election the lot of them will get thrown out,” he said.

“People, including myself, are sick of the political point- scoring between the two groups.”

Cr Ernst said he was disappointed that the reputation of the council had been tarnished by the mistakes of other councillors.

“At the end of the day, it’s all fairly clear in the legislation and when in doubt – disclose,” he said.

“The perception in the community is that we are all tarred with these disclosure issues.”

Cr Hill admitted the issue wasn’t helping the council get on with its core business of aiming to provide services to the community.

“This is becoming a distraction,” she said.

“Unfortunately, this sort of situation does not help the perception of council in our community.

“There is a responsibility on each and everyone of us to declare all our potential conflicts of interest.”

THEIR days on the court may be over but former Townsville Fire players Aneka Davis, Cherie Gallagher and Julia Duroux will be cheering from the sideline when the team takes on Bendigo in the grand final.